All he could give the other was a pointed eye roll and a noogie before the ride began; he had no idea how many times the drop tower was going to, well, drop.

Was it once? Twice? Or would it go the ‘several times and make people scream’ route until it ended?

They would find out eventually, because the moment the first drop hit, he thought he could Ollie screaming…

Or was he just hearing things?

Either way, he couldn’t help but open one eye (because he didn’t realize he’d closed them after the second drop or something) and saw that they were going back up; only to be dropped down once again… whew.

He’d lost count after the fourth because he couldn’t help but yell as well.

Once they were back on solid ground, though, he gave his companion a look.

“Holy shit, that’s crazier than flying,” was all he would say once they got out and were back on the ground—although he couldn’t help himself when they passed by a balloon vendor who was selling… legendary Pokémon balloons.

He couldn’t resist, so instead of grabbing the Articuno (as was expected) he ended up buying the ‘bacon bird’ one, a.k.a. Yveltal’s balloon instead.

“Wanna know a funny story?” he asked once he was holding the ‘bacon bird’ balloon.

---

prompt: buy a balloon pokemon

Never mind if people thought he was part of some carnival show, fact of the matter that he was able to leap over short children spoke volumes…

“You… ass,” he gasped once he’d caught up and got flicked in the forehead, “did you really have to cut through the long line of kids on a—”

He then straightened himself and then dragged the other man through the (relatively short) line and finally sat down on the drop tower ride once they were inside.

“You cheat,” he teased once the safety bars were lowered.

He wondered if the other man could handle the sudden drop once the ride got going…

---

prompt: ride one of the drop tower rides

“Would you rather be stuck with all the crying kids?” he asked him back, because from the looks of things, the fair was going to be headed towards the next location soon and they had little time to hit… all the attractions that were available.

He quirked his lips into a knowing smile, before pulling something out of his pocket—a rice ball that had a mystery stuffing inside it. (He hoped it wasn’t something he was allergic to.)

“There was this new booth that set up over there,” he tilted his head in the direction he came from, “that had spam sandwiches and all the other snacks that Alolans like, so, y’know, I grabbed it for you.”

(Yes, he paid attention to that detail.)

While he unwrapped the rice ball, he wondered if the Magikarp Fishing booth nearby had a long line.

“You doing anything today asides from getting roped to help out at the lost and found booth?”

---

prompt: reference a Magikarp Fishing game

How many times has he called Ollie a ‘bitch’ today?

Far too many, to be hoenst!

“Look, I don’t have that much of an online presence! Can you blame me?!” he shouted after the other man when he insisted on turning the trip towards the drop tower ride into a friggin’ foot race.

And then Ollie just to go cut right through a line of kids who were being led on an increasingly long leash… hey!

“Get back here!” and he had to take the risk with a running start and leaping over the shortest kid’s head, which made the kids watch and gape at him in awe as he easily cleared the line—by other means, of course.

“I’m going to catch you!”

And down towards the drop ride he continued, hoping the other hadn’t made it there before he did.

He idly wondered if the other would be down to hit the Tauros Rodeo booth next after they got down and out of the drop ride…

---

prompt: reference a Tauros-Rodeo game

That was a nice (and useful) surprise he’d found yesterday—today was the second-to-last day of summer, so he knew these last two trips had to count…

And then it would be back to trying to undo the tan he’d gotten from basking in the dreaded sun for the rest of the year.

Why did he like doing this to himself?!

For the shinies, apparently.

So after a liberal application of sunblock, he slipped into the water for his dive of the day.

“I’m here to rescue you, c’mon, let’s get you outta there,” he nodded as he noted the same expression on the other’s face.

He could totally tell the other was planning something, however he let it slide.

“C’mon, I got you some food,” he added as he gestured to the paper bag that had some carnival food he’d picked up (mostly sandwiches with a small bottled water, although there was a small bag of popcorn as well) before handing it over to him.

“I’ll get my food later, this’s yours.”

---

prompt: offer a carnival treat to someone else

“Do you know her Pokégram handle?” he asked as he went back to edit the tags in the picture just so they were (unintentionally) adding fuel to the fire.

Once he would give him said Pokégram handle, he saved the post and had to refresh it a few times because why not?

All too soon the merry-go-round came to a stop and he alighted from the ride first, before turning to face the other.

“You wanna go over to the drop tower ride next?” he asked with this unreadable smirk on his face.

---

prompt: n/a

Fate worked in strange ways, didn’t it?

For once, for bloody once Lars had a day off to himself. Rather than spending it at home (like most days) or with the few people he knew (they were all busy) he decided to drop by the Funtasia faire…

And immediately ran into a problem: someone was running late for work, apparently! He approached the carny who looked rather lost (not to mention wet behind the ears, a total and complete newbie) before realizing that they’d gotten themselves lost first day on the job to boot.

“Eh, no big, lemme get you to the booth where you have to go.”

Bonus points of being a beanpole, he immediately spotted the lost and found station where they were supposed to be headed; him going through the crowd and making sure his companion was able to keep up.

In no time, they’d reached the lost and found booth only for Lars to blink and do a double take at the person who was behind the booth—

“Hey, Emmett. How’d you end up there?” he asked the other Ranger, a hint of bemusement on his face as the actual carny who was supposed to be on duty entered the booth and apologized a thousand times over.

---

prompt: help a carny with an issue

“You got a lotta frown lines to erase, though,” he cracked back, before fishing out his phone from his pocket.

“Hey, Ollie…” he trailed off, quickly flipping the camera on and making sure it was facing the two of them.

“Smile!”

Without warning, he would snap a picture of them both (never mind if the other may or may not be in the frame) before quickly flicking Pokégram and opening it.

Damn it, had it really been a while?!

Either way, he then uploaded the picture along with the caption, ‘just two guys being guys’ and then scrolled for the Funtasia tag and added that in, too.

---

prompt: share your carnival experience on a social media of your choice under #Funtasia

For now, he pockets the ‘space rock’—there’ll be time to go over the finer details later. Just as he’s about to address the Copperajah in the room—

“Are you kidding me?!” he yelped; but only the words come out in Alto Marean instead as the room, quite literally, goes to shit.

(Rest in pieces, Callan Young’s room.)

Having a split-second to actually react to the situation, his gaze immediately goes over to ollie morales (who may or may not have a Flying-type on him) before he makes the jump; never mind if it’s one hell of a leap.

“No way in hell you’re not—falling down to your death, idiota!” he yelled as he concentrated, very hard, hoping against hope that something, anything would happen—

And while it doesn’t summon the Iceborne Mirage per se, it does make the wings of ice appear—although in this case their appearance is more worn-down, frayed; several of the ‘ice feathers’ even look to be missing. Were they molting? He didn’t know.

“Hold on!” he hollered; never mind if he held onto the other in a death grip as the fall stretched down, down, down into… somewhere.

Hopefully there were no rough landings due to falling so far down. It felt like the fall went on forever, at least until he (they?) land in a cavern that has an eerie bluish glow.

(Glowing things never really did mean anything good was bound to happen, right?)

There was a reverberating noise from further within, and he shuddered. Visibly, shuddered.

Am I going to die down here?! he thought, frantically swatting the thoughts away.

Because of all the times, his claustrophobia just had to rear its ugly damned head!

“You okay?” he asked the other man first, before redirecting the question at large. “How’s everyone?”

He’d managed to… calm himself down, somewhat; the wings of ‘ice’ shimmering out of existence. Maybe things were even worse than he thought between himself and the Iceborne Mirage.

“…maybe things aren’t so hot between me and them,” he quietly admitted to his best friend.

He caught sight of the frayed ‘wings’ mid-flight earlier; normally they were from the ‘purest’ kind of ice, however due to the disconnect between them lately, even his ‘blessings’ weren’t functioning as they should be.

He then turned to the general direction of John Sullivan and dahlia goode, however the next statement was for the Commissioner herself.

“Do you have another way of fixing the broken connection between an Avatar and their patron?”

---

• he takes back the space rock, we can go over the finer details later
• and then shit hits the fan, oh deer where are we going this time
• realizes that Ollie may not have brought a Flying-type along, in the chaos he makes the leap and tries to grab onto him
• ice wings let’s go… or maybe not 100% ice wings but they’re there
• one eternity of falling later they’re in a cave, they set down, he asks Ollie if he’s okay + redirects the question to everyone else at large
• his last question is for Dahlia, though.
• bolded thought: Am I going to die down here?! thanks claustrophobia

He looked over at Razz Kingsman, wondering why he had to bust out his paperweight strange space rock and just his alone.

“I’m sure asides from my rock,” he began in illeana reyes’s direction, “you can also have the other scientists examine Razz Kingsman’s space rock as well. Faster if you have more samples to examine with, wouldn’t you say? Rather than have just one team focusing all their attention on one rock—more heads thinking, faster we can all make use of this down the road.”

He then pursed his lips into the same thin, quiet line—he was used to being burned by most around him. however, when ollie morales spoke up, he couldn’t help but give the other a rare, fleeting smile—one the other would know was genuine enough not to be one of the ‘faked’ ones he would use all the time.

His look alone towards his best friend was more than enough while he processed the information that was being laid out in front of them to best gauge the next plan of attack.

“Should we succeed in taking the city back, though,” he said once most everyone had given their input, “…wouldn’t that leave Team Rocket open to take another in its place? Won’t that lock us into the same cycle of sieging, and recapturing, whatever city falls next?”

First it was Slateport, now it was Sootopolis. He didn’t even want to think about the potential fallout should the City in the Crater be razed—after all, even though he wanted to deny it to his dying day, the place was still home for him, at some point.

“We have to end this between them, once and for all. However, should there be a way to take the city back without it looking extremely suspicious that the Legendary Pokémon on our side are the ones behind it and it looks planned, then I’m all ears for that.”

No matter how flawed it would be, a plan was still a plan, at least.

---

• mentions that there’s more than just one ‘space rock’ that the science team can examine + work smart, not hard since there are 2 rocks, why not have more teams look into the phenomenon so that the turnaround time is quicker in general
• he doesn’t want to be the red herring in all of this, however he does bring up a point mentioning that should they get Sootopolis back, won’t another city fall in exchange?
• it’s time to cut off the Hydra’s heads once and for all, so edgewise he’s agreeing that the city has to be taken back
• provides his sort-of agreement with the ‘natural disasters’ shaking the city option as opposed to an outright raid because wouldn’t a direct ‘attack’ on the city by League cause uprest for the civilian population still residing in there?

Honestly, though, how the hell did some of the stuff here work even after staying underwater for so long?

He would… have to take the Incense he’d found a couple of days ago out for a spin. If it turned out to be a salt incense, he would just… laugh his ass off because what the fresh hell? Really?

Either way, he could tell the last days of summer were coming, so it was time to make these dives… well, count.

Off into the swirling, murky depths he dove.

“Bitch,” he shot back with this smirk on his face. “How’s that even possible?”

Before he could retort back with another snarky comment, their ride was off. It must’ve looked insane seeing two of Hoenn’s top figures riding something absolutely dinky like this, but here we all were.

(And for the record, much as he wanted to get on the Articuno, someone had beaten him to it so he had to go for the Suicune for now.)

“Look, I… my sister was the same way. Even if she was under the height limit she also wanted to go on all the big, scary rides. Hell, Claude was even worse since they both wanted to go but only I could… guess who got a growth spurt so early on?”

There was just a little hint of sadness in the smile on his face, should the other notice it.

“Oh? Crack me up, then.”

He wondered if the line at the Magikarp Fishing booth was long, considering that was a game of skill and he wanted to take the other there next.

---

prompt: reference a Magikarp Fishing game